Thoughts and Prayers for MakeMKV - Vigil?

[sudojimmy]

Is MakeMKV dead? Gosh do I ever hope not. I've been wildly enjoying ripping through my massive archive of DVDs and even been buying some additional new and used ones. But I encountered the beta API key expiry issue for July 2025 basically down to the minute and have been refreshing the post with the key like mad for the week+ it's been already. I'm also willing to now go buy it, but the purchase page on the site's down which makes me wonder if this project has just jumped over the rainbow bridge. Gosh, do I ever hope not!

I'm not one to pray for a thing, but.. I'm starting to consider it for this project. Please Obiwan/FSM, please let MakeMKV live on!

[team_rocket]

Same here with me. I just tried to purchase but the purchase site is down.

[ShalomMike]

At the moment we just don't know anything. It is odd that we have not heard anything yet and the beta key has not been updated.

For now, I have been setting my system clock to before 9/31/2025. You should be able to open MakeMKV with the expired beta key. Once the key is validated against your system clock (in my experience has shown) as long as you keep MakeMKV running you can put your system time back to normal. However Blu-ray may be different, I still need to test that.

[DVDThomas]

Ive just joined! And wasnt able to rip one DVD. I take it this isnt usual?

[ShalomMike]

Ive just joined! And wasnt able to rip one DVD. I take it this isnt usual?

Correct. I have been using MakeMKV for years and I don't remember such a delay.

You can set your computer clock to before the expiration date of the current beta key and rip your DVDs though. I hope that helps you.

In my experience, you just have to set your computer time to like July 30, 2025 and then open MakeMKV so that it can validate the beta key time. Once the validation is done you can leave MakeMKV open and put your computer time back to normal. I have tested this with DVDs but I have not tested with Blu-ray.

BTW, you can bookmark this site for the most recent beta key: https://cable.ayra.ch/makemkv/

[Swazirs]

Am I the only person that finds incredibly naive the idea of renewing the beta key every X months? We all knew this was bound to happen, so why not make the whole thing free, or at least guarantee it could be when the time comes that the people behind it (not just the admin, also his peers or even family) could not update or make it alive anymore (also in the event this site dies)? Perhaps that could include not buying, but that's just me...

If we were supposed to believe this could last for so long, then the human race is doomed, because this is the stupidest idea ever conceived. It kinda reminded me of the Year 2000 problem (Y2K), which could have been fixed long before we approached that event, and yet everyone only thought about it when it was too close for comfort.

[forman]

A new key has been posted. Glad Mike is back!

[Ishai]

I always wondered why Mike waits for a key to expire before providing a new one or why the whole free beta is still around after all this time instead of doing something like donationware (which is basically what it is now) but I'm not one to complain about getting a useful tool like MakeMKV for free and the workaround of setting the clock back is easy enough for me to not worry about it too much

[Yarc1]

I always wondered why Mike waits for a key to expire before providing a new one or why the whole free beta is still around after all this time instead of doing something like donationware (which is basically what it is now) but I'm not one to complain about getting a useful tool like MakeMKV for free and the workaround of setting the clock back is easy enough for me to not worry about it too much

I remember reading on this forum a few years ago that the reason may be to bypass any legal issues with selling decryption software. Just think about how SlyFox and Redfox were shut down. But I don't know if this is correct because it is possible to buy a key to register the program. Having said that, it's not currently obligatory to purchase a key to fully use the software, so this may be the legal loop-hole being referred to. But as said, I don't know if this is correct, so take it with a pinch of salt.